The hospital will ask the city to designate some of the public parking on Bond for patient transfer and emergency vehicles.

Ambulances that transfer patients between medical facilities line up in a no-standing zone on the west side of Bond St., next to St. Michael's Hospital, where they create traffic chaos on the narrow street, as shown in this 2012 file photo. The hospital is hoping to remedy the situtation.

St. Michael’s Hospital wants to perform corrective surgery on the traffic problems caused by patient transfer vehicles parked on Bond St.

The downtown hospital will ask the city to designate some of the public parking on Bond for the exclusive use of patient transfer and emergency vehicles, to relieve the traffic chaos caused by “cab-ulances.”

We first wrote about it two years ago, and revisited the issue last week, after the operator of a patient transfer firm said their ambulance taxis were being ticketed daily for parking in the no-standing zone.

The operator wanted Bond to be made a one-way street, which is unlikely to happen, so we asked Vas Georgiou, executive vice-president at St. Mike’s, if the hospital is doing anything about it.

Georgiou said they’re well aware of the traffic issues on Bond and the lack of nearby parking for transfer vehicles, and that the best short-term option is to re-zone some of the public parking.

Hospital officials have “had discussions with the city, but nothing formal,” about converting some of the public spaces on the east side of the street for use by emergency and patient transfer ambulances, he said.

Regular ambulances and police vehicles also need temporary parking around the hospital, he said, which could be addressed by creating legal spaces for them on Bond.

St. Mike’s will partner with Toronto police and EMS on a formal proposal to the city to re-zone about 20 public parking spaces on the east side, which should solve the traffic problems, said Georgiou.

The hospital will soon begin a major redevelopment, including a tower to be built at the southeast corner of Queen and Victoria Sts., which will include a lot more parking.

But until the job is done, creating some parking on Bond for ambulance taxis is the best solution.

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